HS2 rail link: David Cameron facing Tory revolt as opposition mounts

David Cameron faced a fresh revolt in London today against the proposed high speed rail line with a flagship Tory town hall moving to oppose it.

Westminster City Council is due to raise a string of objections over the £50 billion project including fears that it could lead to houses in the borough subsiding and overcrowding at Euston station.

Officers are recommending that the full council formally objects, at a meeting on Wednesday, to the High Speed Rail Bill. Their concerns include:

The route passes under the Queen’s Park Estate area which includes properties with a history of structural problems which “could experience noise, vibration and subsidence problems”. The council wants the route realigned to the north so that it passes under the existing West Coast Main Line.

An assessment of the impact on Euston station as a terminus for HS2 focuses on additional journey times rather than “passenger overcrowding”.

The visual impact of a ventilation shaft and an auto-transformer station at the junction of Salusbury Road and Kilburn Lane.

The objections were being considered as Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin warned that commuters to London will have to queue at railway stations for a train to work if a new high speed rail line is not built.

The Cabinet minister is trying to head off a damaging Commons revolt today by Tory MPs against the proposed HS2 line.

“Even on moderate forecasts, services will be increasingly full by the mid-2020s,” he was set to say.

“If we don’t create extra capacity, people at stations such as Milton Keynes and Northampton will have to queue to get on a train to get to work.”

Mr McLoughlin was also set to argue that London and the South-East are “increasingly full”, so more growth is needed in other regions to rebalance Britain’s economy.

But his comments risked sparking a fresh debate about immigration, public services, housing, transport congestion and pollution. Dozens of Conservative MPs are set to rebel today against HS2, with some ministers with constituencies along the line expected to be absent for the vote, including Europe minister David Lidington who is on a visit to Estonia.

Former Cabinet minister Cheryl Gillan, a leading opponent of the line, called on MPs to defend their constituents’ interests.

And former Tory whip Michael Fabricant claimed that between 80 and 100 of his fellow MPs had “really serious doubts” about HS2.